Forum:47: On Pain of Death
The group started their investigation into the Librennian murder victim, Pvt. Robert Tilden, in the basement of the Military Police HQ within downtown Terceira. A local priest was offering last rites, while the medical examiner gave some details on what had transpired. Pvt. Tilden had been killed in an alleyway by a slash to the throat that killed him instantly. The wound was deep and sliced through skin, bone, and even a metal chain held around his neck without stopping, meaning the cut was likely from a powerful magic weapon suffused with necromancy, and the cleanliness of the cut meant that it may have been controlled magically or telepathically. The angle of the cut also suggested the attacker was in front of the Private, but the absence of defensive injuries means that he either somehow did not notice the attacker or did not suspect them to be a threat. The blade also had to be fairly small so as to avoid leaving a mark in the nearby environment, suggesting a light one-handed weapon. Upon further examination, the group noted that a bruise close to his hip suggested that he was carrying a revolver he was not authorized to carry, but the utter absence of smells and other evidence relating to the handling of a firearm suggested that he had been cleaned after his weapon was removed. On interviewing him with Speak with Dead, he resisted questioning and refused to answer questions pertaining to his killer. He only made clear, however, that his superior officer, a man named Capt. Grant, gave him a gun, and Baihu, the death god, was threatening his friends and family, and that he had died because Baihu was displeased with him. He returned to the realm of the dead thereafter, but not before claiming that the wound that killed him still caused him pain in the afterlife. Now that the group had reason to believe that the Private was a Baihu cultist, or was killed by one, they took the investigation to the local church of Baihu while their handler, Ritter, took his findings and the Private's accusations to Capt. Grant. The group found the church of Baihu to be a hovel in total disrepair, except for some excellent statuary depicting the White Tiger. The only priest still present, a lanky, long-nailed, stringy-haired man by the name of Hector Carson, was still on site, maintaining that the church still served an important purpose even if the locals were a bunch of apostates. In exchange for their kindness and curiosity, the priest offered the group a look at a secret library in the basement of the church, where a number of records pertaining to the history of the church of Baihu in Terceira were kept. Numerous scrolls of Baihu's Last Breath were also on site, but he maintained that they could not be translated without his guidance. On perusing the texts, they learned that the Baihu followers in the city are generally interested in protecting life and even maintained hospitals in wartime, but general misunderstandings and stereotypes about the nature of Baihu worship led the locals to believe that the Baihu priesthood were responsible for bringing war to their nation, and so drove the majority of them out of the city or underground, and thus may have given rise to a secret cultist movement. This cult may be responsible for the murders, or, if the Private's words are to be believed, they may be coming under attack by Baihu in some other capacity. On returning to deliver the news to Ritter, he claimed that the Captain had not given him any information about the missing firearm, but that another team of investigators had arrived from Librem to follow up on the missing firearm. The team of three, lead by the young Lt. Gaines, met and greeted the party shortly before turning in for the night. Though their arrival was met with suspicion, Ritter claimed their information could be trusted and their assistance with the investigation would be helpful. For the time being, they would get some sleep in the MPHQ before going off to the Red Lady Pub in the morning, to see what information they could get from the last people to see the victim alive...